In Antalya, Turkey, on February 13, a fight broke out between football players of the Ukrainian club “Minaj” from Transcarpathia with the athletes of the Yaroslavl “Shinnik”. This is far from the only skirmish between the athletes of the two countries. Details – in the material “Izvestia”.
The fight between the players of “Shinnik” and “Minay” – the details of what happened to the players
The conflict between the athletes became known on the evening of Monday, February 13. According to media reports, the players of both teams came to Antalya for a training camp and settled in the same Royal Seginus hotel. Approvedthat the “foxes” demanded that the head of the Yaroslavl team sing the Ukrainian anthem and received in response an offer to go out into the street and “sort it out one on one”. The hotel staff managed to stop this conflict, but after some time the Ukrainian players beat the Shinnik football player in the elevator. But the elevator arrived at the floor where the rest of the Yaroslavl athletes were standing, and a mass brawl ensued. As a result, an ambulance and the police were called to the hotel, law enforcement officers will be on duty at the hotel until the players are settled in different hotels.
The fact of the fight was confirmed in Russia. According to Shinnik’s press officer Igor Merezhin, several athletes were injured in the clash, but there were no fractures or serious injuries. According to media reports, four Russian football players were injured, and there is still a suspicion of a fracture. “I don’t understand where the Ukrainians could come from in the hotel, because when we booked the hotel, there was a condition that there would be no teams from Ukraine,” leads words of the general director of “Shinnik” Sergey Kulakov “Sport-Express”. Later it became known that the Russians would change the hotel and the players would live at their own expense in the new hotel. “Will the hotel refund the funds? We will study this issue in the legal plane. Now the priority is the safety of our players, ”Kulakov says.
In an official statement, the leadership of the Yaroslavl “Shinnik” stressed that the initiators of the conflict were the Transcarpathian athletes. “Our players acted like a real team, standing up for their teammate, who was attacked,” the document says.
Meanwhile, representatives of the Ukrainian “Minaj” came out with a partial refutation of the information. Recognizing the very fact of the fight, representatives of the Transcarpathian football players said that there was no talk of performing the anthem. Later this post was removed from the official Telegram channel.
Fight between Russian tourists and Ukrainian Shakhtar
This is far from the first attack by Ukrainian athletes on Russians in Turkey. As they wrote on Friday, February 10, Turkish media, another fight took place between the players of the Ukrainian football team Shakhtar and Russian tourists. Seeing Ukrainians dressed in national uniforms in the lobby, the tourists started slogans in support of Russia. In response to this, Shakhtar and the Ukrainian national team striker Daniil Sikan hit one of the Russians and inflicted a head injury on him. The fight quickly turned into a brawl, which had to be broken up by the hotel staff and along with the police. The victim was hospitalized. The Turkish security forces detained Sikan, but the Shakhtar club stood up for their football player and was able to resolve the problem situation amicably.
Russian and Ukrainian athletes spend many years in Turkey winter training camp to prepare for the main season. In January and February, the players settle in the main resort cities – Antalya, Belek and Kemer. Top clubs also come here: Spartak, Dynamo and CSKA. The training camp of Russian teams should end at the end of February.
In Turkey, fights are silent
There is practically no information about such skirmishes between Russians and Ukrainians in the Turkish press. According to IA REGNUM, the administrators of Royal Seginus, due to the negligence of which the Russians and Ukrainians ended up in the same hotel, were punished. However, in general, they are trying to hush up the conflict in the country. “Turkish media received a request from the Union of Turkish Hotels not to inflate this story so as not to undermine the reputation. It is alleged that the hotel administrators who allowed Russians to live together with Ukrainians are punished, ”the agency quoted a source familiar with the situation as saying.
From time to time, in hotels popular with Russians and Ukrainians in Turkey and Egypt, conflicts erupt on ethnic grounds between guests. In this regard, tour operators prefer to settle Russians and Ukrainians away from each other. In March last year, after more frequent skirmishes, the Antalya authorities issued a statement that in the tourism region and in Turkey as a whole, “no manifestation of national enmity is unacceptable.” Those citizens who allow themselves open aggression towards others “will be deprived of Turkish citizenship or residence permit (if any), fined and deported”
But there are examples of other behavior as well. So, in January 2023, the Ukrainian football player of Marseille Ruslan Malinovsky, after the end of the match of the French championship, warmly embraced the Russian player of Monaco Alexander Golovin. This standard post-match gesture between the players of the teams caught on cameras and caused a wave of criticism of Malinovsky in Ukraine. The football player was forced to quickly apologize on social networks.
